About Us

The Jerusalem Orchestra East West is a multicultural orchestra comprising musicians from three religions, from all over the country and from all of Israel’s diverse groups. The orchestra is a unique organization in the world music scene, which weaves together artistic excellence and entertainment as an intentional agenda. In 2022, the orchestra gained recognition as Israel’s leading orchestra by the Culture & Sport State Department.

The orchestral arrangements, which are composed by its musical director, are based on a musical language developed over many years. The language combines and “blends” musical methodologies from East and West into a unified, coherent, and organic language, which ties together maqams and rhythms from Arab Islamic countries with Western harmony and aesthetics.

Tom Cohen - Head Conductor and Artistic Director

The orchestra’s head conductor and artistic director is Maestro Tom Cohen (40), a graduate of the Jerusalem Music Academy.

Cohen founded the orchestra in 2009, together with the former director of the orchestra, Mr. Ofer Amsalem, who writes all of its musical arrangements.

Cohen is known for his unique ability to integrate music from the Arab world and North Africa into the work of classical and Western musicians and vice versa. As a result, he has conducted for a variety of orchestras ranging from the Israel Philharmonic to the Algerian Shaabi Orchestra, “El Gusto.” He also creates orchestras based on the format of the Jerusalem orchestra all over the world, such as:

L’Orchester Symphonique Andalou De Montreal (Canada)
The Med Orchestra (Belgium)
Symphonyate (Morocco)

Dr. Albert Ben Shloosh - CEO

The CEO of the orchestra is Dr. Albert Ben Shloosh, who lives and breathes culture. He was born in Morocco 68 years ago, and at the age of 3, he made Aliyah to Israel with his parents.

His professional career spanned four decades in Acre, where he began as head of acquisitions and then, for 31 years, served as the cultural director, a role he filled successfully until 2015.

In March 2022, he completed a six-year tenure as CEO of the Acre Economic Company. Through his various roles, Albert established the organizational and logistical infrastructure for a slew of events in the city, the most notable of which is, undoubtedly, the Akko Festival, which he led as General Director and Producer-in-Chief since 2000. Simultaneously, he directed Festival Theatronetto with the late Yaakov Agmon and, if that is not enough, he also served as the CEO of the Arabesque music festival, which showcases classical and Andalusian music.

Instruments

The Orchestra’s range of instruments:

Eastern classical instruments

Regular musicians who play darbuka, qanun, oud, ney, flute, and guest musicians, depending on the musical program, who play instruments such as the kamancheh or the Flamenco guitar.

String section

The string section comprises a Broadway-style brass section: trumpet, saxophone, and trombone, who also play as a soloist when needed.

Woodwinds section

The woodwind section is particularly flexible for all that pertains to moving between Eastern and Western musical styles.

Versatile rhythm section

Bass guitar, electric guitar, drums and percussion: darbuka, bendir, frame drums, rik, qanun, bongos, mini maracas, and xylophones.

All of this enables the orchestra to perform oriental music using a Western arrangement and vice versa, in a way that respects the original while striving to enrich it and make it more communicative and accessible to new listeners, and thus expose the music to Jerusalem’s diverse cultures and as many communities as possible.